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Month: January 2016

First recipe with my Lavender Salts! Lavender is great paired with lemon or any citrus flavors. This would also be a nice seasoning combo for a mild fish such as tilapia. This was a delicious dish accompanied by some udon noodles.

Recently, I was watching the “Brunch Village” episode of Portlandia. In it, amidst other shenanigans, there’s a ridiculously long line at a brunch restaurant that specializes in Marionberry Pancakes. What’s a Marionberry you ask? I had no idea so I looked it up. Apparently, it’s a certain breed of blackberry that’s indigenous to Oregon. On the episode, Celeb Chef & Resident Hottie, Bobby Flay argues that they’re just blackberries. The episode was hilarious & left me with a craving for pancakes & berries. I improvised & whipped up this tasty syrup with items I had around the house…

The holidays are hectic. When I made this pie on the fly the other day I didn’t intend for it to be so ugly. However, I assure you it was delicious. As for the limoncello whipped cream, it was quick and easy & not to toot my own horn, (TOOT!) but I was quite pleased with how it came out.

So here’s what I think made my pie ugly (but still delicious). I got a regular pie crust, not a deep dish. When the ingredients overflowed my regular pie crust, the remainder didn’t even half-fill a second crust. So I ended up making another half-round of blueberry filling. When they went into the oven, fruit & crumb topping were mounded atop each pie. The filling did cook down as I predicted it would, but the juices runneth over. This is why we put pies on foil-lined pans people! For the record, Ugly Pie disappeared just as quickly as Pretty Pie.

I make ugly pies. I’m not perfect. Who knew?

For your convenience, in the interest in fighting Ugly Pie Syndrome, I have edited the recipe to make one, attractive, deep-dish pie.

Ugly Blueberry Pie

makes 1 deep-dish pie

Ingredients:

For the pie:

3-4C blueberries (this time of year frozen seems to be cheaper in my area)

1 C granulated sugar

3 tbsp all-purpose flour

juice from 1/2 a lemon (about 1 tbsp)

1/8 tsp Kosher salt

deep dish pie crust (Go ahead, use store-bought, I won’t tell!)

For the crumb topping:

3/4 C all-purpose flour

6 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp granulated sugar

1/8 tsp Kosher salt

1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp ground cardamom

6 tbsp cold, unsalted butter

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400F.

In a large bowl, combine blueberries, flour, sugar, lemon juice, and salt. Make sure berries are coated well with mixture.

Pour mixture into a deep-dish pie crust, to avoid Ugly Pie Syndrome, do not mound your filling into the crust.

In another small bowl combine topping ingredients. Toss with your hands until pea-sized crumbs are formed.

Sprinkle crumbs evenly over the top of your pie.

Bake on a foil-lined baking sheet for about 1 1/2 hrs. You will probably have to tent with foil after about half an hour to prevent over-browning.

Allow pie to cool for several hours before serving.

The perfect topping for this sweet blueberry pie is a tart limoncello whipped cream.

Disclaimer: this topping has actual booze in it. It’s not cooked off. So you will want to make/get some regular whipped cream for any kidlets in the house.